Sin In?

1 Cor. 10:1-13

I want you to know, brothers,that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.

Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, "The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play." We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. We must not put Christ to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. (ESV)

Sin is no longer a fearful thing to the people of the Western world. Indeed, it is considered a positive good. Although I have no idea what the 2005 movie, "Sin City," is about (always dangerous for someone about to give his "two-cents worth"), it is obvious that the movie title is considered an attraction to the average moviegoer. Fifty years ago, if a place was called "Sin City" that was not considered a recommendation. Now, it is. Sin is "in." Have we become so desensitized to wickedness that we no longer consider it a fearful transgression against God?

The late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan presciently spoke of defining down deviancy, so yesterday's perversion becomes today's positive good. Of course, it is easy for the church to sling mud at our declining society. However, our declining society is not the cause of sin. We are. THEY aren't the problem. I am. Cyril of Jerusalem brings this to the forefront of his catechetical lectures when he places the locus of sin in the human will. This is what we Lutherans would call original sin, literally person-sin. Sin is "in," but not the way we mean it in our society, it is really in us. Sin remains a fearful thing because it will singe and burn the soul, making us liable to eternal judgment. God forbid that we should be set ablaze in this way. Christ, by the burning wrath of God, became the last and full burnt offering for sin (Heb 10:10). We can cast aside soul-burning sin in repentance, because Christ has long ago taken it on his person "becoming sin for us" (2 Cor 5:21). Why embrace burning sin when it has long ago been taken away?

Cyril of Jerusalem

"Sin is a fearful thing. The sorest disease of the soul is transgression, secretly cutting its sinews, and becoming also the cause of eternal fire; an evil of a man's own choosing, an offspring of the will. For that we sin of our own will the Prophet says plainly, 'I had planted you like a choice vine of sound and reliable stock. How then did you turn against me into a corrupt, wild vine?' (Jer 2:21). The planting was good, but the fruit coming from the will is evil; and therefore the planter is blameless, but the vine shall be burnt with fire since it was planted for good, and bore fruit unto evil of its own will. According to the Preacher, 'God made mankind upright, but men have gone in search of many schemes' (Ecc 7:29). 'For we are His workmanship,' says the Apostle,'created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do' (Eph 2:10).

"So then the Creator, being good, created for good works; but the creature turned of its own will to wickedness. Sin then is, as we have said, a fearful evil, but not incurable; fearful for him who clings to it, but easy of cure for him who by repentance puts it from him. For suppose that a man is holding fire in his hand; as long as he holds fast the live coal he is sure to be burned, but should he put away the coal, he would have cast away the flame also with it. If however anyone thinks that he is not being burned when sinning, to him the Scripture says, 'Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being burned?' (Prov 6:27). For sin burns the sinews of the soul, and breaks the spiritual bones of the mind, and darkens the light of the heart."

Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures, 7.8